“Hey, well, that’s different...”
“I see,” Carome said, addressing Meddié, “Well then, next it’s you, young lady—his ‘disciple’ or whatever it was you were. Tell me about the Watt you know.”
“Ngh, would it kill you to say please?” Meddié said back. “Nah, it’s fine. You want stories about him, then? So, this was back when master had just come to the city, but—”
“Yep, that’s more than enough of that!” Watt said. “That’s plenty about the past, but we’ve got problems right here in the present! And we can’t go forgetting that either!”
Anna couldn’t help but snicker as she watched Watt sulk. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen this side of you before, father. Having old friends must be so nice!”
“Urk!” Watt groaned. “If you call watchin’ your old man have his dignity scraped away nice, then maybe!”
“Dignity?” Carome said. “You climbed all the way up to Top Knight of the Kingdom and then just threw all that away. You’re more than a little late to be complaining about your dignity now.”
“Nrghhh!”
Carome knew all about his infamous deeds from the past, and there was no doubt that Meddié had a mountain’s worth of story fodder to share. When the odds are stacked against you, you’ve only got one option: hightailing it out of the situation as fast as you can!
“So by the way, Caro, all this business about the past is fine and dandy, but tell me about what’s been going on in the capital lately! Y’know, it’s just been so long now, I don’t have the first idea about all the details!”
Carome found herself desperately tempted to voice her complaints about the way Watt addressed her, only barely managing to hold her tongue. She knew full well that Watt wasn’t the sort of man who could change his behavior as soon as he was told to.
“Ahhh... Fair enough, then,” she said with a sigh. “As you know, His Majesty grew ill, and it was announced that Legalisbelm would be held. And on the surface, at least, it’s been quiet since then. After all, to the citizens of the kingdom, it’s hardly much of a matter to concern themselves with in the first place.”
The majority of those who were directly involved in Legalisbelm were nobles, and for most of the populace, Legalisbelm was just a matter of being notified of the results. If they were to hold any interest at all, it was likely to be in the ceremony held when the new monarch took the throne and the quality of the spirits to be served there...and not much else.
“And how’s Legalisbelm going now? Just who’s fighting against who? Out in the frontier, you don’t hear a word about any of that.”
“There are two main individuals who’ve announced their participation,” Carome explained. “One is Lezamer Ogdenn, the first prince, while the other is Turk Ogdenn, the king’s younger brother. The two of them emerged as the front-runners right after Legalisbelm began, leading the other royal family members to announce their withdrawals shortly thereafter.”
That bastard Lezamer wouldn’t think twice about laying on the pressure on the common masses. Put another way, I guess that means the king’s younger brother has enough momentum to stand tall in spite of that, Watt thought.
“Based on what I’ve heard, it seems the first prince’s faction holds the advantage,” Carome went on. “Meanwhile, at present, the king’s younger brother is frantically trying to secure the support of the nobles. If Anna’s being hunted, then that means it was the work of the king’s brother and his lot, no doubt.”
It made sense; they’d been trying to turn the tables all at once by taking Anna hostage. It was only natural, then, that they’d bring in much excessive force to do so. Not a single one of them had any sense of reason at all.
“It’s a bit odd, though,” Carome said. “You’d only need to think just a bit to imagine that the king’s brother and his men might go after Lady Anna.”
Participating in Legalisbelm meant fortifying the defenses of one’s family before anything else. It was the most fundamentally basic lesson to learn. While the visible use of military might was forbidden, there was no accounting for what might go on out of sight. Even then, Lezamer had sent Anna away from him right away. It didn’t matter how capable of a guardian Watt might be for her—it was almost as if Lezamer were begging them to attack her.
Carome asked the question with her gaze, only for Watt to nod back. “Well, it’s probably just what you imagined,” he said. “Put another way, Anna...you’re a decoy.”
“I knew it,” Anna replied. “I figured my stepfather would do something like that.”
“That bastard’s just as good at all this shady business as he’s always been,” Watt said.
Anna was shocked...hardly shocked, rather. Far from it, really—she’d just been able to confirm what she’d already vaguely suspected, nothing more. Be it stepdaughter or otherwise, Lezamer Ogdenn was the sort to use every asset at his disposal.
“But there’s a part of it I just can’t crack,” Watt said. “And that’s how in the world doing something like that benefits Lezamer.” Assuming the first prince’s faction already had the advantage, then all he had to do was hunker down and keep on course, right? Even Watt didn’t have any idea what Lezamer hoped to gain by going so far as to put Anna at risk. “And that’s part of it. I came here to do something about that too, so...”
Watt suddenly lifted his head and looked around. Even Carome had a stern look plastered on her face.
“Looks like we’ve got some uninvited guests on our hands,” Watt said.
“Seems so,” Carome replied. “And they’re surrounding us as we speak. It seems to be a fairly sizable operation too.”
Anna’s eyes grew round, while Meddié hurriedly looked back and forth to no avail.
“Whaaa?! But we’re right smack-dab in the middle of the capital!”
“You forget already?” Watt asked. “You’re the one who said this was the bad guys’ base.”
“Well, I mean, yeah, but still!”
Even the girls noticed it now. As they were speaking, the outside of the house grew ever louder and louder.